Climate change in recent decades and increased concentration of precipitation during cold seasons, changing the planting date of legumes and winter dormant seeding can be a smart-climate agronomic solution. A field experiment was conducted to evaluate planting dates (spring: S and winter: W) and different fertilizer application (control, NPK, farmyard manure, complete chemical fertilizer, biological fertilizer, and nano-structured micronutrients) on chickpea growth and yield characteristics in northwest Iran. Evaluations showed that the chlorophyll content of plants grown in spring planting was higher than in winter planting. The highest number of secondary branches was recorded under S+ farmyard manure conditions (22.9). Although the use of all chemical, organic, and biological fertilizers significantly increased canopy width in spring planting compared to the control, NPK fertilizer had a greater effect on canopy width in winter planting. Not applying fertilizer at both planting dates increased the number of empty pods. Application of biological fertilizer at spring planting resulted in the lowest number of empty pods. The highest biomass and grain yield (430 g m-2) was achieved with NPK application in spring planting. Overall, the results revealed that winter planting was not suitable for the region and the cultivated plant variety, and spring planting resulted in better performance. Dormant winter seeding of chickpea in the studied region requires the use of some other specific agronomic management and improved cultivars.
